The visit will take the participants to the capital Baku, the Sangachal Oil Terminal, Goychay in central Azerbaijan and Xirdalan in the east of the country. During their stay, the Board members will meet the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, Prime Minister Artur Rasizade and Minister of Economic Development and EBRD Governor Heydar Babayev, as well as representatives of the diplomatic and business communities and civil society. The delegation will also visit EBRD-sponsored projects in the country.

Representatives of the Board in the delegation will be Laszlo Andor, representing Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Croatia; Ib Katznelson, representing Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania and FYR Macedonia; Byung-il Kim, representing Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Egypt; Kalin Mitrev, representing Poland, Bulgaria and Albania; Kaarina Rautala, representing Finland, Norway and Latvia; Manuel Sager, representing Switzerland, Turkey, Liechtenstein, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyz Republic, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Serbia and Montenegro; Irena Sodin, representing Slovenia, Belgium and Luxembourg; and Mark Sullivan, representing the USA.

In recent years Azerbaijan has strongly benefited from oil and oil-related business, and the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline earlier this year will contribute to further strong growth. Economic diversification, however, remains a key challenge to achieve sustainable development of all sectors and help improve living standards throughout the country.

To date the EBRD has signed more than 30 investments worth more than ?700 million in Azerbaijan. The Bank is focused on the development of a strong financial sector, the support of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the development of the non-oil private sector. AzerTAg